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Published online: 28 April 2010 | doi:10.1038/nchina.2010.59

Organic chemistry: No smoke without fire, and no fire without hydroperoxides

Felix Cheung

Introduction

© (2010) istockphoto.com/Andriy Myahkov

A good understanding of the mechanisms behind the oxidation of hydrocarbons is necessary to improve the design of combustion engines. Although never proved, it is widely believed that the oxidation of hydrocarbons at low temperatures (below 1,000 K) involves the formation of organic hydroperoxides (ROOH). Now, researchers led by Fei Qi at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, China, and Frédérique Battin-Leclerc at the University of Nancy in France¹ have designed an experiment to confirm this theory.

The researchers used a jet-stirred reactor coupled to a highly sensitive mass spectrometer with low photon energy to study the oxidation of butane at temperatures between 560 and 720 K. The mass spectrometer helped distinguish the hydroperoxides from the large number of oxidation products, and the low photon energy helped avoid product fragmentation.

The mass spectrum revealed a wide range of oxidation products. The most important of all are methyl hydroperoxide (CH₃OOH), ethyl hydroperoxide (C₂H₅OOH), butyl hydroperoxide (C₄H₉OOH) and ketohydroperoxide (C₃H₇COOOH).

The findings therefore confirm the formation of hydroperoxides during the oxidation of hydrocarbons at low temperatures. Further investigation is necessary to understand why these hydroperoxides are produced.

The authors of this work are from:
Laboratoire Réactions et Génie des Procédés, Nancy Université, Nancy, France; National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.

Reference

1. Battin-Leclerc, F. et al. Experimental confirmation of the low-temperature oxidation scheme of alkanes. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 49, 3169–3172 (2010).
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